BlackRock

Best Blogs of the Week

Posted by Anu Heda on Jan 16, 2012, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , , ,

Four interesting blogs – 2 related to the ECB’s unchanged rates. I’m impressed with many firms that are using the blog to establish thought leadership related to current events and do it very quickly. Congrats to Pioneer – another firm entering the “best” mix for the first time.

  • BlackRock – The coverage of New Hampshire and South Carolina is intense. This post covers another election, occurring this weekend, that is critical for global investors.
  • Columbia – This post shares how to consider long-term investments related to the Panama Canal upgrade; really interesting and pretty different from the standard posts.
  • Pioneer – Bringing an interesting relation between emerging markets and rates in Europe, this post shares an interesting position along with a link to a more detailed report.
  • Wells Fargo – Dr. Jacobsen’s post immediately addresses ECB’s actions and the potential impacts.

Best Blogs of the Week

Posted by Anu Heda on Jan 09, 2012, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , ,

Happy New Year! I hope it was an enjoyable and restful for you as it was for me. This post covers a bit more time than usual. Still, we found three high-quality blogs; two provide outlooks and one shares looking back at 2011 in one great graphic.

  • Columbia – New to the “best of,” Columbia’s post provides straightforward bullets to thinking about 2012.
  • BlackRock – This post considers three scenarios for 2012 and high-level considerations.
  • Russell – This effective chart puts 2011 S&P returns into perspective

 

Best Blogs of the Week

Posted by Anu Heda on Dec 21, 2011, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , , ,

Mid-December usually yields numerous year-in-review and prognostication newsletters, emails and blog posts. Often they are valuable for FAs as they plan and deliver a year-end message to clients and prospective clients. There were two strong posts that share opinions on 2012 and what may occur.

  • BlackRock – No surprise that this post focuses on ETFs. As the ETF vehicle becomes more popular with advisors, then dispelling myths become more crucial.
  • Russell – A succinct review from another great Russell survey shares some helpful opinions and thoughts on what may occur in 2012.

Happy New Year. This is the final BEST of BLOGS for 2011. If you’ve enjoyed, agreed, disagreed, disliked them, please send an email and let us know.

On December 31st, we’ll crown one blog post as the best blog of the year. After that, we’ll resume the review on January 9th.

 

Best Blogs of the Week

Posted by Anu Heda on Dec 12, 2011, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , , ,

This week’s posts cover a fairly wide range of topics and include a video post (from Wells Fargo).

  1. AllianceBernstein – This post shows the struggle between seeking a specific return versus controlling variability. I liked the focus on a specific institutional segment here.
  2. BlackRock – This post focuses on a commonly stated investment process: accessing fixed income directly is difficult and better done via active management. The analysis is interesting.
  3. Wells Fargo – This video provides “7 key principles” that are pretty good. All FAs will use some combination of these and perhaps this post helps sell working with an FA for a prospective client. At 8 minutes, the video is a little long. But once you get to volatility and standard deviation, the idea of working with an advisor will become more appealing to an on-the-fence investor.

Best Blogs of the Week

Posted by Anu Heda on Dec 05, 2011, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , , ,

This week’s best include two different views on the super-committee, their action (or lack of), and implications to portfolios. Additionally, there’s an interesting take on Europe included.

  1. BlackRock – This post describes why the super-committee’s inaction may tip the US back into recession.
  2. Russell – This post describes the repercussions from the mandatory cuts going into effect in 2013.
  3. Wells Fargo – The post describes two opposing scenarios for the European Central Bank and repercussions that would ensue.